Crave

Dell Zino HD: Mac Mini killer?

(Credit: Dell)

No, The 404 Podcast isn't getting a TV deal with CBS, but it doesn't seem that far out of reach. The network has its giant eye on the witty musings of a cynical old man, posted on a Twitter account created by his son, Justin Halpern. Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are signed as Exeuctive Producers and Justin himself will super the writing along with Patrick Shumacker. Uhh, HELLO CBS, is anyone from our parent company out there? You already got a strategically developed television show just waiting to delight the eyes and ears of America: it's called THE 404.

Next, we take a moment to spotlight the Dell Zino HD, a full-on entertainment PC that looks remarkably like Wilson's firstborn son, the Mac Mini, but can actually do a lot more with up to a terabyte of storage space, 8GB of RAM, and the option to throw in a Blu-ray or DVD drive. Wilson wishes his Mac Mini gave him direct HDMI access and a bigger hard drive, but still defends Apple and its OS to the death--it's interesting to hear him try to wiggle his way out of this one.

Another story from today's episode comes from our own Caroline McCarthy, who tells us that the New Oxford American Dictionary has picked the verb "unfriend" as its 2009 Word of the Year. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the process of removing someone formerly deemed as a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter. You might recall the Burger King ad campaign that encouraged users to "sacrifice" friends to get a free burger. Systems like these encourage the use of the term "unfriend," and give it value in the everyday lexicon, but when will this stop? I'm scared to think that the 2018 Word of the Year will something awful, like "tweet" or "pwn."

If you haven't had a chance to listen to yesterday's show with Tony Hawk, definitely go back and check it out and keep listening for your chance to win tons of video game prizes, including a free giveaway of Tony Hawk: RIDE. Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

We can't claim to have even seen Apple's updated Mac Minis, let alone reviewed them, but we can still form a few opinions of the updated specs and the addition of an OS X Server version to the Mac Mini line-up.

To recap, Apple updated the CPU, default RAM, and hard-drive capacities of both its $599 and $799 Mac Minis earlier today. The Core 2 Duo chip in the $599 Mac Mini goes from 2.0GHz to 2.26GHz, the RAM doubles from 1GB of RAM to 2GB, and the hard drive jumps from a 120GB to a 160GB model. The $799 Mac Mini gets a bigger performance boost with its Core 2 Duo chip going from 2.0GHz to 2.53GHz. Its RAM also doubles from 2GB to 4GB, but its hard drive stays the same size.

The hands on this photo? Not ours.

(Credit: Apple)

When we review Macs, we like to pretend we live in a world where computers are tools, where we can be operating system agnostic, and where we appreciate, but stop short of fetishizing, good design. Under those assumptions, and based purely on its specs, we have concerns with the price of both new Mac Minis next to competing small scale Windows-based PCs.

Gateway's SX2800-01, and systems like it, could give the new Mac Minis some stiff competition.

(Credit: CNET/Sarah Tew)

We'll withhold judgment until we can actually test the new Mac Minis, but our hunch is that Gateway's $459, Core 2 Quad-based SX2800-01 slim tower would outperform or come close enough to either new Mac Mini in processing typical workloads. The benefits of the smaller Mac Mini case may also have a hard time competing with the Gateway's versatility that comes from an HDMI output and its upgrade options. We also expect more competitive small PCs to come out over the next few weeks as the holiday buying season continues.

Even if the standard Mac Minis do compete well on performance, the server iteration of the Mac Mini is more interesting, and we credit Apple for listening to a specialized portion of the Mac Mini's current user base. For $999, Apple will now sell you a Mac Mini that essentially mirrors the new $799 model, except that instead of OS X you get OS X Server, and the DVD burner has been replaced by a second hard drive, for 1TB of storage overall. The price might be more than the DIY crowd will tolerate, but any small workgroup environment that might benefit from an out-of-the-way traffic cop it can plug in and forget could very likely be interested in what the Mac Mini Server has to offer.

With luck, we'll get our hands on all three versions soon.

Update (2:30pm PT): We've obtained review samples of the new iMac, MacBook, and Magic Mouse released today. Follow-up coverage--including hands-on impressions and videos--is included below.

First impressions of Apple's new 27-inch iMac [includes video]

Hands-on with the new Apple MacBook [includes video]

Hands-off analysis of Apple's new Mac Minis

First Look: Apple conjures up Magic Mouse with a dose of multi-touch

Apple Time Capsule, Airport Extreme receive small (possibly significant) upgrades

Original story follows.

Apple revamped its desktop and laptop lines Tuesday, dramatically redesigning the iMac all-in-one and MacBook laptop, and also adding a few updates to its Mac Mini line of small-scale desktops. It also introduced a handful of updated peripherals, with a multitouch mouse bringing the most thorough changes.

Apple's redesigned iMac echoes the MacBook Pro.

(Credit: Apple)

New iMacs
The biggest news Tuesday will be the new iMacs, which move from aluminum and polycarbon design to aluminum and edge-to-edge glass, mirroring the look of Apple's line of MacBook Pro laptops. The new iMac will come in 21.5 (1,920x1,080) and 27-inch (2,560x1,440) models, each with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Starting price for the 21.5-inch model is $1,199, with the 27-incher beginning at $1,699. Apple will also offer step-up models for each screen size, coming in at $1,499 for the beefier 21.5-inch model, and $1,999 for the higher-end 27-inch iMac.

As for specs, Apple has mostly opted for raw speed over adding more processing cores. All but the $1,999 iMac come with Intel Core 2 Duo chips, but the CPU speed in the lowest model now starts at 3.06GHz. That used to be the fastest chip available in Apple's previous highest-end iMac. The one exception is the $1,999 iMac, which starts with Intel's most recent quad-core chip, the core i5 at 2.66GHz, and upgrade options for that model go all the way to the even faster Core i7 at 2.8GHz.

Other new iMac features are relatively straightforward for the systems themselves. There's no Blu-ray option, as was rumored, but you do get an SD Card slot on all new iMacs. The 27-inch version also lets you use its mini-Display Port input as a video input (via a dongle from Belkin), which means you can use the larger iMac as a second monitor. The GeForce 9400M remains the standard graphics chip, with upgrades available to Radeon HD 4670 and Radeon HD 4870 chips. Storage options go as high as 2TB on the 27-inchers.

Gallery: Apple's new 27-inch iMac

13-inch Unibody Polycarbonate MacBook
Apple has also revamped its best-selling laptop, the 13-inch MacBook. The new version retains the white polycarbonate look, as well as the $999 price.

Had it with Windows? Ready to chuck your spyware-infested desktop and buy a Mac? Here's your chance to do it on the cheap: J&R has the Mac Mini MB138LL/A for $459 shipped. No rebates, no refurbs--these are new units.

Well, kind of. This is actually last year's model, meaning it has a slightly slower processor and smaller hard drive than the current entry-level Mini.

Even so, the specs are solid: a 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and a slot-loading DVD/CD-RW combo drive. Plus all the other Mac Mini goodies, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and iLife '08.

As with all Mac Minis, this one is BYODKM: bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse. Luckily, you should be able to use whatever gear you have lying around.

CNET's review of this Mini is mostly positive, with props given to its ultracompact size, great looks, and robust software bundle. This model sold for $799 when the review was written, so you're saving nearly 50 percent.

Of course, even with that kind of reduction in the "Apple tax," there are cheaper desktops to be had. CompUSA, for example, has a refurbished dual-core Hewlett-Packard desktop for $359.99. It has a 2.4GHz processor, 3GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a DVD burner--and a mouse and keyboard. That's a pretty amazing deal.

Yeah, I went there--but let's not revisit the tired old Mac-versus-Windows debate, shall we? Instead, riddle me this: does anyone even buy desktops anymore? I mean, I bought one a couple months ago, but I'm fairly certain it'll be my last.

Sure, PMA was lots of fun, but there was plenty of other stuff going on here at Crave this week. Here's some of the best and some of the worst.

(Credit: Apple)

• We took a look at the new 24-inch iMacs from Apple--and liked what we saw.

• We brought you news of "trashy" lingerie made from recycled materials. We won't tell if you click.

• Strangely, it seems Amazon wants to help the iPhone be the Kindle killer with its own Kindle app. It works, but there's some strangeness.

• We can rebuild him: Meet the quasi-bionic eye camera. Do not want, but kind of do want. Chinese DVD pirates, take note.

The foyer of my new mansion.

(Credit: Frank McKinney)

• Craver Justin Yu channeled his inner Shania Twain in putting down the new Mac Mini. In a nutshell: $200 gets you a decent laptop with more features.

• We also covered the next place I will live. No, really, I'm working on the financing. Bloggers can get great loans for eco-mansions in this economy, right?

• I'll take one of these amazing eco-friendly supercars to go with it. You've got to have the complete package these days.

See anything we missed? We're not perfect, it can happen. If so, get to us at Crave at cnet dot com and we'll take a look.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

As promised, we just published our in-depth look at the 2.0GHz, 320GB Mac Mini. The last 20-inch iMac is also on its way, so keep checking back for more updates. In the meantime, don't forget to check out our slide show below for a quick tour of the systems in our lab:

Read the CNET review of the higher-end Mac Mini.

Read the CNET review of the entry-level Mac Mini.

Read the CNET review of the 24-inch iMac.

New iMac and Mac Minis on the lab bench

After taking a hard look at the $599 Mac Mini, our OS-neutral assessment of the refresh is that its onboard features and performance benchmarks don't stack up to other budget PCs on the market, where you can spend $100 less and pick up a PC like the Acer Aspire X1700-U3700A, which provides a faster CPU clock speed, three times more RAM, and more than five times the storage space, not to mention a variety of superior internal expansion opportunities.

Apple's push toward environmental efficiencies deserves a shout-out here. Both of the new Mac Minis adhere to Energy Star's stringent 5.0 requirements and achieve the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)'s highest "gold rating," where previous Minis only reached silver. We used our own Watts Up consumption tool, compared the Mini to a competing desktop, and found that Apple only uses 15.4 watts of power compared to the other system's 70.9 watts at idle.

Interested in our final rating and reading more?

Check out our full review of the low-end Apple Mac Mini.

Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, gets snowed out of New York today, and Justin Yu and Natali Del Conte are both suspiciously absent. We thought they were joking about the whole getting married thing. We didn't actually think they would hook up. Anyway, Heavy fills in today and does an admirable job of explaining why people get migraines. Essentially, Justin needs to take some Midol.

Facebook Ad

So what the hell is this Facebook ad suppose to mean? Jeff can't figure it out, but Heavy is heavy on the case. As usual, Jeff has a hater opinion on the new Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. The best part by far is The Roots band. Anyway, we learn why smart people have a hard time dating. It's not the acne. It has mostly to do with the studying rather than dating.

Finally, big news of the day is that Apple updates its desktop line of computers. We know that the whole tech universe stops whenever Steve Jobs does...well... just about anything. Nothing spectacular here. It's just a refresh of its iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro lines of computers. Wilson is just glad that the Mac Mini isn't dead.

We've got a new contest! We want to come up with a new motto. Our archnemesis podcast Buzz Out Loud is "The Podcast of Indeterminate Length." So far, our best entries are "The Podcast of the Future" or "The Podcast of Indeterminate Sense." Send in your entries to 1-866-404-CNET (2628) or via e-mail to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com, and you might just get a nondate with Heavy.

The new Mac Mini starts at $599--the same as the old Mac Mini.

(Credit: Apple)

First off, an admission: I've always wanted a Mac Mini. Sort of like I've always wanted a Mini Cooper convertible. But then I take a look at the price tag and it always seems too expensive. Call me cheap, but when you're at $600 (for the entry-level Mini) you start to ask yourself: what can I get for a few hundred bucks more--aside from the step-up $799 Mac Mini?

The answer is always a laptop. Now, the Mac Mini, of course, is basically a laptop without the screen. It uses laptop components. This new base system features a new 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, the same 1GB of RAM, and a larger 120GB hard drive (see Rich Brown's full post here).

The step-up model doubles the RAM and includes a 320GB drive (you really don't get $200 worth of extras for your $200, do you?). Nvidia's MCP79 chipset drives both new Mac Minis; that translates into the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip driving its display. A nice upgrade from the old model, to be sure, but it would be a lot nicer if Apple had a configuration that started at $399, not $599.

I know what so many of you are about to tell me. Apple doesn't bother with low-margin products. It just wouldn't do a $399 Mac Mini. That's why it's raking it in while other PC makers are having an awfully hard time these days. I understand. I get it. But that doesn't mean I can't ask for a $399 Mac Mini. And it isn't like the Mini was flying off the shelves at $599 before, so why should it fly off them now?

Again, call me cheap. But I want a new $399 Mac Mini--and I'd put an order in for one right now if it existed. Anybody agree?